Chapter 28
### Stefan
They brought the guard to the lower infirmary before sunrise fully broke over the valley.
He was alive.
Barely.
The healer had cleaned the powder from his skin and bound the cut at his temple where Maureen had struck him. The irony was not lost on Stefan—she had likely saved the traitor's life by knocking him unconscious before the toxin he carried could fully disperse.
Stefan stood at the edge of the narrow stone bed, arms folded behind his back, gaze fixed on the guard's pale face.
"Wake him," he said.
The healer hesitated only briefly before pressing a pungent herb beneath the guard's nose.
The man choked awake, disoriented—then froze when he saw who stood over him.
"Alpha."
Stefan's voice was calm.
Too calm.
"You entered the ancestral cavern during a sacred trial."
The guard swallowed.
"I—"
"You carried hallucinogenic powder."
Silence.
The healer stepped back toward the wall, making herself smaller.
"I was ordered," the guard said quickly.
